Voyeurism and Surveillance

The voyeuristic theme is common to many of Alfred Hitchcock’s films, such as Norman Bates in Psycho, but the difference in Rear Window is that Hitchcock’s filming technique of using point of view effectively positions the viewer as a vicarious voyeur, inviting the viewer to experience what it is like to be a Peeping Tom. Confined to a wheelchair, Jeff has become an observer of life rather than a participant and, similar to the experience of watching a movie, immerses himself into the narrative of his neighbour’s lives, filling out the plot with his own opinions when details are missing, even ascribing each with a nickname. By controlling the viewer’s experience so that it mirrors Jeff’s limited perspective, and cleverly revealing the intimate details of Jeff’s neighbours in piecemeal fashion, Hitchcock keeps the viewer in suspense as to the fate of the neighbours, teasing the viewer into the world of watching.

Through Jeff’s questioning of his behaviour, Hitchcock raises the issue of whether it is ethical to watch people when they are unaware they are being watched, and through Lieutenant Doyle’s reference to people’s entitlement to privacy on watching various scenes of the neighbour, Hitchcock draws attention to the blurred boundary between what is public and what is private. Jeff’s rationalisation that he doesn’t care if he is watched like ‘a bug under a glass’ belies the generally-held social contract that people should not spy on one another and, on a few occasions, he appears compelled in adhering to this contract, as seen when he turns his eyes away from the Newlyweds having an intimate moment. Stella is the voice of reason, at least until she is convinced Lars murdered his wife and joins in the spying herself, and reminds Jeff of the legal implications of spying on people, being that it is considered a crime.

The dense apartment complex, where residents are highly visible to one another, was a clever way for Hitchcock to setup the bait and leave to the viewer to discern their own level of comfortability between watching appropriately and watching too intently. Some support can be lent to Jeff’s voyeurism in that Lars Thorwald’s crime may not have been uncovered without it, and perhaps if more of the neighbours checked on each other, Miss Lonelyhearts’ condition may not have deteriorated and the dog may have been saved. But should this entitle Jeff and Lieutenant Doyle to leer at the unbeknown Miss Torso as she practises her dancing in a choice of clothing suitable to the hot weather or to watch Miss Lonelyhearts be inappropriately groped by a young suitor? With housing becoming denser due to population growth, ethical issues around watching people will no doubt continue to be pertinent.

The voyeurism and the male gaze theme connect with Jeff and Lieutenant Doyle’s leering at Miss Torso. This speaks about gender identity in the 1950s and the prevailing idea of masculinity that enabled Jeff and Doyle to presume their entitlement of looking at Miss Torso. Doyle’s behaviour is particularly hypocritical given his supposed understanding that people should be entitled to their ”… secret, private world…’ where they can ‘do … things … they couldn’t do in public.’

The theme of surveillance is invoked through Jeff’s suspicions about his neighbours which ultimately leads him to form opinions about them based on every little thing he sees, which Lisa calls ‘diseased’. The roaming camera that invites the viewer to join in on the spying and the appearance of a helicopter hovering over the apartments at the beginning of the film also give the impression of close observation for the purposes of gathering information. This connects with McCarthyism, a practice which came to denote an era that was contemporaneous to the film, when fears of the spread of communism within America resulted in the heightening of political surveillance. The effect on American society was that many everyday people, wanting to show loyalty to the government, reported on their neighbours, frequently on the basis of little evidence.

Voyeurism and Surveillance Quotes

‘Six weeks sitting in a two-room apartment with nothing to do but look out the window at the neighbours.’ (Jeff) Scene 1

‘State sentence for a peeping tom is six months in the workhouse … they used to put your eyes out with a red-hot poker.’ (Stella to Jeff) Scene 2

‘What people ought to do is get outside their own house and look in for a change.’ (Stella to Jeff) Scene 2

‘Get back! He’ll see you.’
‘I’m not shy. I’ve been looked at before.’ (Jeff to Stella when Mr Thorwald looks suspiciously out of his window) Scene 6

‘Jeff, if you could only see yourself!’ (Lisa to Jeff about his preoccupation with watching Mr Thorwald) Scene 7

‘… wild opinions about every little thing you see is diseased!’ (Lisa to Jeff) Scene 7

‘Well, I think you saw something there’s probably a very simple explanation for.’ (Doyle to Jeff) Scene 8

‘That’s a secret, private world you’re looking into out there. People do a lot of things in private they couldn’t do in public.’ (Doyle to Jeff and Lisa) Scene 10

‘I wonder if it’s ethical to watch a man with binoculars and a long-focus lens.’ (Jeff to Lisa) Scene 10

‘Do you suppose it’s ethical, even if you prove that he didn’t commit a crime?’ (Jeff to Lisa) Scene 10

‘Of course, they can do the same thing to me, watch me like a bug under a glass, if they want to.’ (Jeff to Lisa) Scene 10

Marriage and Singleness

Rear Window explores marriage and singleness through the lives of its varied characters, including the bachelors, Jeff and the Songwriter, the single ladies, Lisa, Miss Lonelyhearts, Miss Torso and Miss Hearing Aid, and the married couples, the Thorwalds, Man and Woman from the Fire Escape, the Newlyweds, and Stella and Lieutenant Doyle and their respective partners. Hitchcock comments that neither marriage nor singleness is perfect but that instead each is fraught with its own benefits and challenges.

Post-war American attitudes favoured marrying early and raising a family and these are apparent in Lisa’s expressed desire for a union with Jeff, Miss Lonelyhearts’ and Miss Torso’s attentions towards the men in their lives, and Stella and Doyle’s encouragement that Jeff settle down. But as persistently pointed out by Jeff through his references to the ‘nagging wife’, marriage is not without its challenges and requires some adjustment in both parties in order to achieve harmony, as alluded to in the Songwriter’s tune that symbolises the journey of Jeff and Lisa’s relationship.

Married life is portrayed as following a trajectory, from the amorous honeymoon period seen in the Newlyweds to the relaxed contentment found in the longer unions of the Man and Woman from the Fire Escape and Stella and her husband. Doyle’s leering at Miss Torso and the freedoms he perceives Jeff to have and Jeff’s over-analysis as to the merits of modern marriage suggest that living with ideals or stereotypical thinking about marriage can detract from the satisfaction that can come from a marriage lived with shared commitment and real compatibility. The Thorwald marriage represents a marriage that has reached its end, where communication has broken down and Mrs Thorwald has resorted to nagging, fulfilling Jeff’s stereotype. The Newlywed wife’s nagging at the end of the film suggests the couple’s relationship is critically approaching that of the Thorwalds, and that unless they are willing to work on their issues and make the necessary changes, their marriage may reach breaking point.

While singleness in the film is positioned to mostly coincide with loneliness, particularly in the case of Miss Lonelyhearts, but also in the perceived loneliness of the Songwriter and Miss Torso who appear lonely even while socialising, Miss Hearing Aid’s perceived contentment in her sculpting suggests one does not have to be married to be fulfilled or that choosing to remain single may lead one to higher forms of satisfaction such as through art.

Marriage and Singleness Quotes

‘It’s about time you got married before you turn into a lonesome and bitter old man.’ (Gunnison to Jeff) Scene 1

‘Jeff, wives don’t nag anymore, they discuss.’ (Gunnison) Scene 1

‘Maybe in the high-rent district they discuss, in my neighbourhood they still nag.’ (Jeff to Gunnison, about women) Scene 1

‘Modern marriage… Once it was see somebody, get excited, get married.
Now, it’s read a lot of books.’ (Stella to Jeff) Scene 2

‘She’s like a queen bee with her pick of the drones.’
‘l’d say she’s doing a woman’s hardest job. Juggling wolves.’ (Jeff to Lisa, about Miss Torso) Scene 3

‘Well, she picked the most prosperous-looking one.’ (Jeff to Lisa, about Miss Torso’s choice of man) Scene 3

‘Oh, it’s enchanting. It’s almost as if it were being written especially for us.’
‘Hm. No wonder he’s having so much trouble with it.’ (Lisa to Jeff, on the tune from the Songwriter’s apartment) Scene 3

‘You don’t think either one of us could ever change?’
‘Right now it doesn’t seem so.’ (Lisa to Jeff) Scene 4

‘Maybe one day she’ll find her happiness.’
‘Yeah, and some man will lose his.’ (Stella to Jeff about Miss Lonelyhearts) Scene 6

‘I can’t tell you what a welcome sight this is. No wonder your husband still loves you.’ (Jeff to Stella when she brings his breakfast) Scene 8

‘How’s your wife?’ (Jeff to Doyle when Doyle leers at Miss Torso) Scene 9

Community / Care / Compassion

The theme of community plays out in Rear Window through revealing a lack of community, care and compassion, demonstrating that people can be lonely and feel isolated even when they live in close proximity to others.  Jeff and Lisa are shown as detached from others, Jeff through keeping the world at camera’s length and the travel that keeps him free from commitment and dependence on others, and Lisa through the arms-length of her privileged status. Jeff views his neighbours as subjects in a study rather than as active players in life, each with a separate narrative, played out adjacently but not connected. The big movie screen Hitchcock simulates in the opening scene when the curtains are first opened lends effect here. Lisa joins in the watching and other than her passing concern for Miss Torso being surrounded by predatory men seems as disinterested as Jeff in getting to personally know the neighbours whom Jeff has candidly nicknamed. Stella’s job as a nurse positions her as more caring, frequently displayed in her attention to the incapacitated Jeff, however even she joins Jeff and Lisa in watching the neighbours like characters in a film. Stella does however express concern for Miss Lonelyhearts’ situation, particularly when Miss Lonelyhearts is about to overdose on some pills.

While there is some casual interaction amongst the watched neighbours, such as Miss Torso’s music annoying Miss Hearing Aid, and Mr Thorwald snapping at Miss Hearing Aid when she scolds him for overwatering the garden, mostly the residents keep to themselves. That is, until the Man and the Woman from the Fire Escape’s dog is killed. The Woman’s emotional plea as to the human qualities that should define a neighbour, such as kindness, compassion and connection, strikes a chord in some of the characters. Miss Lonelyhearts compassionately returns the dog’s body to its owners, and close-up shots of the Miss Torso, as well as Jeff and Lisa, show they have each been emotionally affected. However, this affect is short-lived, and the residents soon return to their own lives.

It is not until Jeff, Lisa and Stella begin investigating Mrs Thorwald’s disappearance that the trio essentially venture outside of their worlds and enter the real life of the community they have only observed from afar, Jeff vicariously from the confines of his chair. Further, Jeff somewhat redeems himself with compassion when, prompted by Stella, he phones the police about Miss Lonelyhearts’ situation. The Songwriter’s tune, which essentially stops Miss Lonelyhearts from taking pills and culminates in her visiting his apartment at the close of the film, is the only occasion where two of the neighbours meet on purpose, having been drawn together by a common interest. These actions suggest that community cannot be built simply by putting people in close proximity, but is based on active participation and reaching out to interact with others on a personal level.

High-density residences, by virtue of their design, require neighbours to live in close proximity to one another and because air-conditioners were not yet widely available in the 1950s, windows were opened in hot weather, further increasing visibility into the personal spaces of apartments. It may be that in order to maximise privacy, people living in such complexes have become so practised at appreciating their outdoor aspects without noticing their neighbours that it has diminished a sense of connection to them and instead has the effect of increasing anonymity.

Community / Care / Compassion Quotes

‘Six weeks sitting in a two-room apartment with nothing to do but look out the window at the neighbours.’ (Jeff) Scene 1

‘There can’t be that much difference between people and the way they live. We all eat, talk, drink, laugh, wear clothes.’ (Lisa to Jeff) Scene 4

‘Isn’t there anybody in the neighbourhood who could cast an eye in her direction?’ (Stella to Jeff, about Miss Lonelyhearts) Scene 6

‘You don’t know the meaning of the word “neighbours”. Neighbours like each other, speak to each other, care if anybody lives or dies! But none of you do!’ (Woman on the balcony on learning her dog had been killed) Scene 11

‘Mr Jefferies, the music stopped her.’ (Stella to Jeff when Miss Lonelyhearts is stopped from suiciding by the music from the Songwriter’s apartment) Scene 11

Gender

Rear Window mirrors the gender stereotypes of the 1950s, which feature in many of Hitchcock’s films, but also at times transforms them. Hitchcock shows the decline of traditional masculinity through his male character’s lacking in heroic traits and impotent in their roles and actions. Jeff is confined to his wheelchair, reliant on basic care from Stella and in his ability to make a firm decision about his relationship with Lisa. Lieutenant Doyle is unable to act in the Thorwald matter because of the lack of evidence and because of a misplaced patriarchal perspective that refuses to accept the female intuition being offered by Lisa. Even Thorwald as a menacing murderer is portrayed as clumsy, ineffective in his criminal ambition, and pictured frequently rearranging handbags and jewellery items that are generally associated with females. Miss Torso’s beau, a returned soldier, does not present as an athletic or imposing figure but is short and gently spoken.

In stark contrast to the reasonably ineffective males of the film, the women in Hitchcock’s Rear Window subvert most expectations. Jeff’s expectation of Lisa’s inability to live his intrepid lifestyle is overturned by her heroism in investigating and confronting Lars Thorwald, even leading Jeff to declare that he was proud of her. Despite the apparent objectification of Miss Torso as a shallow, physical presence who is expected to choose the wealthiest of suitors, her eventual choice of partner confirms that she is neither shallow nor superficial.

Hitchcock’s commentary is congruent with the changing times in post-war American society when women shifted traditional roles and responsibilities to participate in the war effort then resumed a new chapter rather than reverted to pre-war expectations. Most moral agency in the film belongs with the women. It is Lisa and Stella who have objections to Jeff’s voyeurism. Likewise, after the murder of the dog, it is the Woman on the Fire Escape who delivers a scathing monologue on what it means to be a neighbour.

However, despite these transformations in gender expectations, some traditional 1950s roles can still be seen. There is a caring nature to both Stella and Lisa as they deliver or prepare food for Jeff, and an expectation that women should always be made up as seen in Miss Lonelyhearts’ painstaking process of putting on make-up and in Lisa’s glamourous and elegant dress. The manner in which men spoke down to women, displayed through Jeff’s barking at Lisa to shut up and his constant referencing that women nag as well as Lieutenant Doyle’s belittling of women’s intuition, and masculine rivalry, seen in the constant barbs between Jeff and Doyle, the confrontation between Jeff and Lars Thorwald, and in the competition for Miss Torso’s attention amongst the ‘wolves’, also mark the times.

Gender Quotes

‘Maybe in the high-rent district they discuss, in my neighbourhood they still nag.’ (Jeff to Gunnison, about women) Scene 1

‘Well, she picked the most prosperous-looking one.’ (Jeff to Lisa, about Miss Torso’s choice of man) Scene 3

‘She sure is the “eat, drink and be merry” girl.’
‘Yeah, she’ll wind up fat, alcoholic and miserable.’ (Jeff to Stella, about Miss Torso) Scene 6

‘How far does a girl have to go before you’ll notice her?’
‘Well, if she’s pretty enough, she doesn’t have to go anywhere.’ (Lisa to Jeff) Scene 7

‘I can’t tell you what a welcome sight this is. No wonder your husband still loves you.’ (Jeff to Stella when she brings his breakfast) Scene 8

‘Well, I never saw him ask her for advice. She volunteered plenty, but I never saw him ask her for any.’ (Jeff to Lisa about Thorwald) Scene 10

‘Women aren’t that unpredictable.’ (Lisa to Jeff) Scene 10

‘Why, a woman going anywhere but the hospital would always take make-up, perfume and jewellery.’ (Lisa to Jeff) Scene 10

‘Besides, you’re not up on your private eye literature. When they’re in trouble, it’s always their Girl Friday that gets them out of it.’ (Lisa to Jeff) Scene 10

‘That feminine intuition stuff sells magazines but in real life, it’s still a fairy tale.’ (Doyle to Jeff and Lisa) Scene 10

‘You know, for a minute, that Tom Doyle almost had me convinced I was wrong.’ (Jeff to Lisa) Scene 11

‘When those cops see Lisa, they’ll even contribute’. (Stella to Jeff about the shortfall on Lisa’s bail) Scene 11

‘Gee, I’m proud of ya.’ (Jeff to Lisa) Scene 12